Friday 27 September 2013 03.45 EDT
First published on Friday 27 September 2013 03.45 EDT

Tom Meagher, the husband of murdered ABC staff member Jill Meagher, has criticised the failed appeal bid by her killer Adrian Bayley, calling it a "waste of public money" that should have been used to improve Victoria's parole system.

On Thursday, Bayley lost his appeal to have the 35-year non-parole part of his life sentence reduced. He was handed the sentence, along with a 15-year term for rape, in June for the fatal assault of Jill Meagher in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick last year.

In a Facebook posting, Tom Meagher criticised the legal aid system for allowing Bayley to appeal.

"There is no deterrent for these lifers not to appeal, and no punishment for further stretching the tight budgets of the system," he wrote. "Perhaps if they added years on to his sentence these scumbags would think twice."

Meagher said the money for Bayley's appeal should have been given to Victoria's parole board instead. Bayley was on parole at the time of Jill Meagher's death, despite having been found guilty of 20 rape and assault offences over a 23-year period.

"When I had my meeting with the parole board they complained of receiving only $2.5m annually, compared to $14m a year for the NSW parole board," he wrote.

"Funding that should be channelled into fixing this system is wasted on this asshole's legal aid, for an appeal that everybody knew would not stick. He has now come out no better or worse off."

The general manager of the board, David Provan, told Guardian Australia that its funding had increased with CPI.

"I know that the NSW parole board budget is significantly more than Victoria," he said. "But the board has received an injection of funds from the Department of Justice for additional resources and staff. We are undertaking a review and reform program."

Robert Clark, Victoria's attorney general, told the Herald Sun that he would be speaking to Victoria Legal Aid over the allocation of its funding.

"Although a large part of VLA's role involves providing legal representation for accused persons, VLA needs to be able to justify its decisions in any particular case," he said.

"I intend to raise this issue with the VLA board to ensure that VLA's approach to funding appeal cases is clear, fair and in the public interest."